Compassion is the second of the 4 Brahma viharas. The Oxford dictionary defines it is “sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others.” Almost 20 years ago, I did not know what the word compassion meant. I asked a friend in discussion, and she said its like “kindness in action”. I remember not being a particularly compassionate human.
In examining compassion further for all these years, I learnt to evoke it toward myself and toward my fellow human beings. In fact I was able to challenge myself in growing my compassion circles further out to include all sentient beings in compassion. No matter their life story or choices.
I learnt to refrain from holding compassion from those who were making unhealthy choices in how they live their lives, and how they judged others, I was able to find compassion for everyone. The practice of Tonglen helped me with this, where the instruction is to breathe in suffering and breathe out relief, without thinking about why the suffering exists, or whether the person deserves to suffer.
“Whether a person deserves to suffer”, the human conditioning we have all been taught to indulge in, to become the judge and jury toward another’s choices and life without knowing anything about them.
Today I urge you to examine compassion- in your life and how far you extend it to others.